All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Thursday, 31 December 2009

christmas was fantastic, a much needed break from poker, lots of great food, lovely company and not mention plenty of ale flowing. Am in work now then off to a big family party to see the new year in then after 4th Jan its back to poker with which I have some big plans for.

I have had more contact with the one an only Rainman (nick rainey) and it does look like things are going to start moving in the next 2/3 weeks. I am itching to see exactly whats on offer and what am goin to be doing but one things for sure whatever it is, if I put the work in, has the potential to be life changing so fingers crossed on that one

Monday, 21 December 2009

.....Remember it's a time for family, friends, ale an food so dont be ignoring an isolating those around you and grinding those cold winter days away. Remember what's important in life, show them, let them know but most importantly spend quality time with them.

All the best and see you in 2010 when I come back more educated, more determined and more prepared to crush all you motherfuckers into oblivion

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Am not playin another hand of poker now til feburary as am gonna relax an spend much needed time with family an friends between now an the end of the year. Then when reality hits again on 4th Jan am goin to invest in studyin an just basically take a break from playin! I've been playin 18 months an never really taken enough time to learn properly. Everythin I know about the game I have learned myself or through blogs an its obvioulsy not working. I'm not a bad player and could easily grind out break even / small profit if I stuck to BRM but 2010 IS time to move to the next level. I have had decent wins an done quite well in little personal challenges but never stuck to them. Then I do play well out of my roll on many occasions too, which is obvs stupid an bit degenrate but its all gonna stop now.

To add to this I recieved a pleasant email from Nick Rainey the other day an if something comes of it then I might be back at the tables quicker but who knows. He does say he looks forward to workin with me soon? The guys a legend imo an the way he's crushin stars at the minute is phenomanel, he's even got an outside chance at the yearly TLB an the sicko has only been on there just over 3 months I think. If you can get on his programme there's only gonna be 1 outcome, many $$$, so fingers crossed. I emailed him in response to this, check it out cause it makes you realise poker doesnt come easy even to the best of them.

onto the 2 hands, the 1st one I check raise the flop with an over shove. I am not hangin around in these BIG ANTE tournies as you'll ante out pretty fast, I know am ahead I dont like the flush/str8 draws so am takin it now. The very next hand I pick up the ladies an while am beratin him still (which I dont normally do) he bums me again and am out. 87% on the flop an he still draws out. I really flipped after this which I dont normally do so thats the reason I need a break. This 'seems' to be all the time an just need to refresh an find out what is am missin!

Saturday, 12 December 2009

with a raise an re raise I though surely one of them had an A and had to bet. Has to be said its a pretty nice check on the river by my opponent after rivering his back door flush! my own fault for being greedy I suppose

Monday, 7 December 2009

Been messin gettin used to multi tablin on ipoker ready for the new year. Its pretty hard to multi table on there but I've been practicing on the $2/5 tables an am gettin used to it slowly

I went back to stars and played the $5/2R1A the other night. Made it through 3000+ people then this happened, the inevitable blow up with 18 left. So fuckin stupid but he never had me covered an I thought we'd be flippin. However i didnt need to take the flip so it was a simple blow up but id been playin SNG's and with that tourney I'd been playin 14 hours easy and am not used to playin that long. Still in it after the 1st one an the exit hand hand is typical of my relationship with stars, important hands at important times never go my way, even when I have them dominated.

Friday, 20 November 2009

After withdrawing last months profits and my roll I was bit pissed off tbh, even though I had no choice. Xmas is expensive and the money has come in handy and also got me some brownie points with the chick. I was meant to be takin a break from playin poker and do more on the studyin side ready for a non stop grind in the new year startin at the $16s on a new site w/ rakeback. I did analyse quite a few hands for the 1st time ever and some of the things I seen were quite shocking.

After mullin through thousands of hands I obvs got the urge to play a lil game so deposited £25 on pokerstars an played the $22/5k an came 14/980 for $180 so close to the final losin 2 standard flips. I then won 2 $16/18 man turbos for $216 an its gave me a little role so my plan is to grind out $3 18/45/90/180 turbos between now an christmas moving up as i have the buy ins. Why I am bothering doin it to meself I dont know but am ready for some redic beats, 4 new mouses, 3 new keyboards and probably a screen, with work commitments I will try my best to get 100 games in a day an al post the results every monday.

Thursday, 12 November 2009

Played the 100 donk n go's, took me 3 days because of work. Bit pissed off tbh because I made some stupid mistakes and it could of been different with a nice top 10. Games are sick because of the amount of hands you're seeing obv mean bad beats seem like they're constantly coming an you gotta keep on reminding yourself its standard but seein so many in such a short space of time is a killer

played 100 - 1450 points which should see me in top 25

Profit - $162ROI - 55.3%

You have to run so good but play good right across the 100 games, when 8 tabling though its pretty tough when youve been in work all day! O well theres time for another shot this week an I play better at weekends!

Monday, 9 November 2009

no were near the top 10 as you're looking at about 450 points, sick thing is I had 300 points after the 1st ten games then ran like [censored] in the last 10 games, also ran like [censored] heads up and when ITM

Friday, 6 November 2009

Ok so I have a couple of decent results since coming back from Vegas. I think I see online poker in a new light and my game is definitely progressing nicely. As I have said before I am no pro and am learning this game every time I play. One thing that I have noticed is I am becoming a lot more patient were MTT’s are concerned. They are so redic when it comes to variance but are also, (imo) the best way to make money at the game. One of the biggest leaks I had in MTTs was thinking I was dead when I weren’t. A prime example of this came in the 1000 runner $22 5k on stars the other night. I was down to 10bb at 50/100 but managed to grind my way through were here I would normally be shoving pretty light trying to get my chips back, however I grinded and stole blinds were possible and made it to 300/600 with 6bb when I shoved 88 from the CO after one limper, pretty optimal I suppose but I was looked up by JJ and TT respectively and rivered a miracle 8 J to treble up. Straight after I found AK soooooted and flopped the nuts on JQTr board with 2 big post flop shoves in front of me and I trebled again to take the chip lead as we neared the bubble. Normally at 50/100 I would be in with a very wide range of hands but I am starting to realise the key to tournaments. Not long ago I heard the saying ‘you have to stay in the tournament long enough to get lucky when the big pots are out’ an never has a truer word been spoken. I ended up making the final but couldn’t lay queens down pre and ended up coming 6th. I have posted the hand below and wondered if anyone thinks I should be getting away from these hands on final tables. When he shoved over my 3-bet I kinda felt priced in for 117k into 500k but should I have 3-bet in the first place? Even if I call am not getting away from it on that flop anyway, is it just unlucky, a cooler?? Or can I lay it down and wait for a better spot, personally after analysing it I think the latter but that’s easy to say when I now what he has, I will appreciate any input!!!

In the end 6th of 1049 runners isn’t bad in these variance filled fields. I have also had 13th in $50 buy in / 500 runners and finaled tabled numerous $3+r180 manners and a few finals in the $4.40 90 manners. I have also been enjoying the $12 45 turbos on stars. The fields are so weak but variance is very high.

At the minute I feel like I am playing my best game in MTTs and multi SNG’s so I am going to stick to them. I have no real plan which isn’t good, I simply loads stars an decide what type of game I am going to play but now I have a built a role I can play with BRM as the key factor.

The other night I played the $22 six max 500 cap on stars. I was doing so well, my confidence was high and I was cruising with 25 left when these 3 hands happened one after the other practically

Now the KK is fucking sick, I mean he shoves right in me eye BvB when I’ve got KK. Now I actually time banked this as I knew he was doing this with any naked ace. His range here is obvs any 2 but Ive seen this guy overplay Ax so many time. Therefore the fact I knew he had one over made me nervous obvs am not passin and obvs he rivers his bullet to make his A3o the nutzzzzzzzzz

I am not going to lie I tilted like hell and then knew when I got JJ 2 hands or something later, something like this would happen, if I won that KK flip I am cruising to the 6 handed final, so I muck it, but after what happened I obvs over played it. I mean 1 over is not the worst board but from his betting patterns and previous history he clearly had it yet I stationed him down anyway like the donk I am

Then a few hands later AK is no good for QK, albeit post flop I check shoved w/ fold equity 2 overs and a gutshot on a QJ3r board and obvs he held and I couldn’t believe I was out for a measly $100 profit so sick.

I have decided while I work I can’t make money of the $16 18 man turbos, I have a 300 game sample with a $600 profit for a $2 profit per game. It doesn’t take carol vordeman to figure out they are profitable but the volume I would need to put in would be redic. Plus I can still only play my game when I am 4 tabling, anymore than that and I am done. I read a good post from burnley mik were he talks about the amount of regs that play these games. Now these regs are playing at the only time I can play because of my work commitments. They are so nitty and there is hardly any dead money in them so I will be putting them on the back burner for the time being. The 45/90/180 manners may have a higher variance factor but more dead money. Plus at the minute its multis I seem to be playing best in

I am going to be concentrating on MTTs fore the foreseeable future as the new cap tourneys on stars suit me down to the ground. Hopefully I can continue building the roll and be inspired by people like f3nix35 who has built a roll through sheer, hard work, commitment and volume. I have followed his blog for a while and think he will go far in this game. In fact I would go as far to say as he will probably be one of the top MTT players in the world in 5 years if not quicker.

Still haven’t watched any training vids as I feel they can only teach you so much. At the end of the day everyone has different styles so you can confuse yourself by watching to much. I would much prefer 1on1 live coaching and will be looking at this option in the New Year. I still feel the best way to learn this game, is play play play, adopt your own style, yes you might lose a bit more $ in the interim but I think in the long run its better for your game

Thursday, 15 October 2009

Well what an amazin place! what can I say that hasnt already been said, poker on tap, neon lights gorgeous girls serving you free drinks whilst you play, nightclubs galore and people treating you like a king. I stayed in the paris hotel and it was amazing, right in the centre of the strip opposite belagio and either side of ballys and planet hollywood! It has an eifel tower which runs through the building and comes out on the 3rd floor at the pool area. Hot waitress' and nice food also. Its just out of this world!

The week started off OK pokerwise, winnin 2 buy ins an 200NL in planet hollywood then over to belagio winnin another 2 buy ins. Then this happened in belaggio on the 2nd night and kind of put me off cash when I realised just how easy I could lose so much money in one hand. I was lucky I never had more cash on me as the villain had a bout 1k infront of her and I would normally keep 2, $100 bills as well as chips on the table just incase that rare holding called the nuts ever came my way, well it did an here's the outcome

Belaggio - $1/$2 NL + standard $4 straddle

me BB - Js9s - $500 stack after spinnin me initial $200 up, Villain - old chinese lady, with 2 very hot daughters standing behind her. She was getting needled, by some fat american constantly. To be fair he was a twat, going on about how he dealt Hellmuths home game for years and made 50k in tips which he span up to over half a mill on BJ. He claimed he played 25/50 mainly an was only playing 1/2 because he was drunk an out for fun. At one point he asked to old chinese lady were the nearest whore house was and how she must know, one of her duaghters proceeded to bitch slap him in front of the whole table lol, to the tables delight the floor was then called and he was asked leave. This was directly before the below hand

Full ring 9 man table. Young Chinese lad makes the standard straddle to $4 and everyone flats round to me and I complete the straddle with my J9s

flop....

Jh 9c 4c

I bet about $30 which is nearly the pot, 1 caller from mid position and old chinese who's hitting the deck like you wouldnt believe squeezes to $70 otb, I consider a set but she has been playing so aggressive and the table is way to lose to lay top 2 down just yet, so I think maybe NFD and 2 overs / SD, an OP is unlikely as she would deffo of bumped it up pre, no way she could get trappy with AA/KK on this table 44 is possible but i put her on TP or completer air/draw, so I decide to flat, now I do this because I think i am ahead, if a club lands on the turn I can still get away, she's hittin so many draws maybe I should just get it in there but I wanted to trap her, she werent folding any draws to a shove, she was so aggressive plus if she had top pair, she could put me on a draw, If a blank comes my plan is to get in on the turn or give it up. The other person in the hand now folds.

turn...Jc$

Lickin lips time, either she has hit her FD or has 44 or even a J, even my initial nightmare 44 is now my dream holding for my opponent so I decide to now check the nuts, she shoves an I fist pump call

dealer hollywoods the river which is a K

she flips JK and I feel physically sick, I stumble out the bellagio in utter shock, back to my hotel an think to myself, cash poker can FUCK OFF!!!

Found a nice tourney in ceasers palace, $85, 7500 stack average 70 runners 20 min clock, gets a bit crap shooty when deep tho. Busted the 1st time I played after being card dead and shoving 10 bb and 77 into AT which hit. Made the last 17 2nd time but shoving 9bb and 99 in from mid position and the button found AA, 2 other callers called with QK and AT aswell which both missed an would of been a good final table stack! My dad finaled it twice 8th and 4th and we were half of everything so that was nice. After busting that I lost a buy in in cash in ceasers when I raised KK and got a caller by TT and all the chips went in on a TJJ flop. Maybe I coulda folded but some one folded a J face up pre so it made the hand really weird, chinese lad couldnt put me on a J and I couldnt put him on a J, obvs he had TT lol. Had the J not been folded faced up I may of passed me OP, chinese own live poker in vegas! I seen one chinese lad 4 best shove 50bb against some poor english mans AA with 35, flop A46, turn J river 7, they are just so sick!!!

won a small tournament in Planet Hollywood, $80 buy in 30 runners an a couple of re entries so about $800 FTW, small but nice to win one. Bubbled this twice and me dad won it once to. Also had 2 min chashes in it. Planet Hollywood was were we had the best cracks, dealers were funny, waitress were hot and the atmosphere was relaxed, cash games were lose and the tournies were small and beatable. 'The Blimey Limeys all in' was one dealers fave saying (in her crap attempt an english accent) whenever I went all in LOL

I never played poker as much as I thought I would because of the running bad but more because the place is just amazing, spent most nights drinking until the early hours so werent focused enough for big long sessions. Plus it was so sick and I werent about to waste 7 hours a day in tournies to bubble on a standard flip when i was missing everything else vegas had to offer, a week werent long enough to cope with variance either. One thing is for sure I will never slag online poker again for the rest of my life! anyone who thinks its sick, just go to vegas and you will love online poker forever!

all in all it was a great experience and made me look at online poker in a new light. I will be starting a project pretty soon with BRM being the key. Just awiating the role..........

few pics from the trip as I know your all dying to know what I look like ;-)

she dealt me the win haha!

In Summary - GG Vegas and Online poker FTW!!! cant wait to go back next year tho! The main problem was we didnt play any of the $200 deepstacks were you expect the best poker to come on top but they were like 13 hours in average, all the tournies under $150 were a worse structure and while there was play at the start if you went card dead after half way you were fucked with rising fast blinds/antes and no fold equity you needed the cards, obvs they never came at the right times

Stars have some nice new tournies running. They have a 3k stack with capped runners. Something I have wanted for a while, smaller fields suit me down to the ground. They use 10% payout structure to so you get more than double for a min cash. Hope the trials succesful because they will put them in the regular schedule. Played my 1st one last night an here's my exit hand, standard flip for a good pot approaching the FT, but instead busted 13th, so sick he hit his set on the river but hey thats poker

played the 20k guaranteed $22/1500 runners whilst today as well an this was for a top 20 spot with 400 left, not long after losing this sick I shoved 68 suited on the BTN for 8 BB same guy called with J9 and rivered a flush after i flopped 2 pair. One day I will hold an take one of these down lol. My game is gettin better each time I play. Its so tough when you play good poker an donks hit like this but what can you do? keep goin i suppose. BvB he might have a legitimate hand I suppose but i hadnt got tricky with once up until this and had only showndown good hands

now that is disgusting!!! to top it off he had already had me the hand before with my KK vs his AA BvB after he lost a massive pot, so he only had 700 chips and he doubled twice in 2 hands through me. Very next hand I flop the nut flush an the rest of me little stack goes in an 2 pair turns a full house, very sick!

I havent really been playin very much because of stuff like this, however I have taken stupid shots at big money an lost. I do have some interesting graphs from experiments but they're only from small sample of a couple of a couple of hundred games, but they look promising. I know the game I am good at and I know what I have to do to make money at it and achieve long term success. I go to vegas on wednesday an cant wait to try my hand at some real decent live tournaments. I am there for a week and I am only going with my Dad who's been to many times so while there will be a day set aside for site seeing for me to see the necessarys and a bit of time for relaxing, the main aim will be to play as much poker as we possibly can, tournaments and cash. I dont have much experience in cash games but have watched an read more than enough to know what I need to know, an I have played some with small success. Me dad is a consistent cash winner so I might play the tournaments an leave the main of the cash games to him.

Poker has not been fun for me lately and I have been learning the hard way. I hit a brick wall, but the obvious positive is that its the not poker or the way i play it thats the problem its the lack of bank roll management. I am not a even a gambler, I hate blackjack, roulette, horses etc. I put the odd bet on the footy thats it so this is an easy problem. I learned the hard way that you just can not win in poker with out BRM. Hopefully Vegas can get me enjoying poker again then I can come back refreshed an ready to do it. May the cards be with me!!!

Leave you with 3 donkaments Ive picked already, deffo takin one of these down. When I am back I will be putting everything I have learned into practice. Its a tough game this, but I will beat poker before I let it beat me

Monday, 24 August 2009

After 2 decent cahses after sat'n into the warm up I thought Id use this sat ticket for the million. Before we go there I want to start by sayin I played some of the best poker I have ever played in my life in this tournament. I started well chippin up to about 16k then got lucky against a shortstacks KK with AJ to put me up to 20k. I lost 2 big races with QQ V QK (k on the turn) and JJ v AK BvB he hit an ace. I then got upto 50k without showdown I was corectly assigning ranges to peoples hands, I laid QQ down to a 4 bet shove pre and he showed me AA. I was feelin really good and hadnt been at risk once which also felt quite good. Then this happened...

firstly I want to explain my reasoning behind my pre flop actions. The initial raiser was a serial early position stealer an the button had high squeeze % but the table was aggro also, so I flatted here hoping to induce a squeeze from behind. Anyway it never came an AAbenjaminAA a winning online regular flatted AJo in the SB (pretty bad imo). when the flop came JJ9 2 clubs I felt physically sick tbh, but I just couldnt lay it down. AJ was a possibilty but they way the hand was played his range had to be wide pre. He then bet 1200 into 1600, standard considering his stack size. Now here I am thinkin he has a FD. I smove call at this point with the intention of seeing the turn action wich again brought more draws, but could of completed for KT or 8T. He then led for another 30k, I basically didnt know were I was at this point. is he drawing has he got AQ QK, I have no major winning numbers, does he just see me as weak?? is he playing his big stack?? I really didnt know so I just shoved hoping to see QK, AK, AQ, flush or straight draw obvs he had the AJ an I was out.

I posting it here hoping for some advice. Did I basically out think myself pre flop? 90% of the time here I am 3 bettin here without a doubt, sometimes shoving.I think the flop call wasnt bad, maybe should of raised to see were I was, but looking back I think I probly fold the turn as most of time he shows me the J here. But this was a top 10 pot approaching the bubble and I am sick of min cashing I really thought maybe he's at it and if I win this hand, who knows. Plus am not drawing completly dead. Anyway sick as fuck

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Time for Moyes to bite the bullet an sell Lescott. As much as I wanted him to stay and it would have been nice to finally see a manager stand up and say fuck off to player power, its just not realistic anymore. He tried and tried well but he has to accept defeat. I say defeat lightly though because if he can get 25 mill in a package of cash and players then I think its excellent business. Not going to come on here and say he's shit, I want him to go anyway etc because he's not. He's 27, English, scores goals, and is consistent in terms of appearance. He does however have a tendency to make a mistake. The amount of times Jags pulled him out the shit last season was unbelievable. He gets left by the top class strikers and the cup final was a perfect example of this, he just couldn’t contain drogba at all. Jags is the main man at the back for us and I just hope he comes back stronger than before his injury. We need at least 4 new faces and the rumour on the street here is , 18 mill and dunne for lescott, then buy Stephen Taylor from Newcastle and moutihno from Portugal, along with the Swedish midfielder rassmus elm now if he pulls off them signings then I think it could be a decent season. The start doesn’t worry me, if anything getting tonked 6-1 at home by arsenal is better than getting beat 1-0 as it highlights the problems that moyes will have to deal with, lets face it when you CH tells the boss 10 mins before the game he doesn't wanna play as he is not focused, then what else dya expect to happen when the team goes on the pitch. Something dramatic needs to happen in terms of a "reaction" and am sure it will. Last season we lost our 1st 3 home games, Wigan, Blackburn an Portsmouth yet we finished 5th and made the cup final, so it’s a marathon not a sprint. People still forget our 3 best players are out an when we get jags, arteta and the yak back it will be like 3 new signings. I think Chelsea look uber strong and I can see anyone getting near them so they're my tip for the league and under ancelloti it could be their year in the champs league to, definitely 1 of the 2

Poker has been a bit non existent lately on the playing front, playing for fun really but I have put a lot of volume in terms of studying. I bust my stars roll by playing with out BRM as stated in me last post. Won about $600 on FT and withdrew it because I am going to Vegas in 6 weeks so needed some money for that. Still waiting for this staking deal to start but I had to be brutally honest with myself and say I am just not ready for that. I am not far off but needed to study more. The studying is going well learning new things and reading plenty of archived and new posts on 2+2. I need to buy cardrunners which I will be doing and will probs watch every streets SNG video on there. He's a sicko. Also www.sngnick.com is up an running so check it out if you haven't seen it. Its Nick Rainey's site an he's a sicko when it comes to MTTSNG's,. Wouldn’t mind 10 days in his boot camp.

I bought sharkscope and found some very interesting facts on myself and the way I have been playing. It fairness I needed something like this, its not nice seeing that you're a losing player but something you have to do in order to improve obviously. I did find one game that I am a winner at which was nice and it was the $6/$16 18 man turbos on stars.Another good thing is I am a winner since starting the blog and a lot of my losses are from when I was a clueless idiot and had not even learned the game before playing it. The fact I am a loser at $3.40 18 manners makers me wonder how this is possible. I just hate playing micro stakes poker. You are basically playing no fold em hold em against clueless dickeads who type 'ajajajajaaja' or 'hahaahaah' or 'weeeeeeeeeey' every time there pocket deuces bust your rockets after flopping quads, it tilts me no end an there is just too much variance playing at that level. Also the fact that win rate is so small makes you about as happy as losing a £100 and finding a quid. You sit there for 5 hours 6 tabling and make a about $0.50 a game for a profit of $50 over a 100 games and 8 hours lol. So I am going to wait til I have $1600 dollars spare an take a proper shot at the $16 18 manners and couple that with the staking deal on VC w/ rakeback then things do look good for the coming months. Its just a case of getting this extra bit of training an coaching. I am by no means giving up. a little experiment on the $16 18 man turbos, threw this up. Obvs 125 games is not a big enough sample, but its a start

Friday, 7 August 2009

Playin the eary double A & B tourneys on full tilt, check this out! would of of put me in a good position to, squeezin mainly to take the button out an pot build incase i hit big, I love seein flops IP with QK suited, sick this... still in the both tho

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Yep that’s right I as good as busted my stars roll last weekend. After a hard, all day session at a wedding on Saturday I tried a mammoth poker session on the Sunday which resulted in 4 things:

• Playing like a twat• Playing to high• Chasing losses• Virtually going bust

Dropped about 25 buyins but just couldn’t log off and instead tried higher buy ins, with a ‘my lucks gotta change soon’ attitude, clearly that would never happen. I was hung over after partying until 6am. I really was not thinking straight and paid a heavy price. So after really hard work and grinding $20 up to$1000 I then proceeded to drop and drop and drop until I had $300 left. It was then I realised I was being a complete twat. Losing SNG’s, busting multis early and losing satellites everywhere so I logged off an withdrew the remaining money and felt pretty shitty. TBH its can be a blessing in disguise as I need a break from stars anyway, its sick I came up against BOKU87 so many times during my own little challenge, and to say he runs good against me in key spots is an understatement. However he is such a sicko, I checked him out now and then when I came across him and he was playing 30+ multis at a time for hours on end. GL to him I say but he does run well. Can you imagine the PR stars are going to get out of this? O look someone turned $5 - $100 000 in a year on our site. This will be pretty bad cos they will fail to mention he is a pro who multi tables for most of his life. They will mis-advertise and get shit loads of people trying the same thing.

Full Tilt

I felt like playing a multi on Monday so I deposited $50 in my account I have on FT poker and played 2x 90 manners. $24 buy in and $12 buy in. finale tabled them both, took 3rd in the $24 and 7th in the $12. The $24 felt particularly good as I was down to 3 BB approaching the bubble when I shoved 57dd UTG and got 2 callers form AQ/KJ and binked a 5 on the river to treble up. Immediately after that I shoved AA and got 3 callers and they HELD. I went from potential bubble boy to chip leader in 2 hands. Got KK cracked by AK on the FT to go back to average and then grinded a 3rd place finish when QQ was no good 3 handed against JJ. Felt good cos after busting most of me stars roll I really did need a win and something to turn it around. Took a good payday and they were knock out tourneys to, I busted 6 people in both, so it was around a $500 payday, which pulled back most of my stars losses the night before. Going to keep playing on FT in the meantime they’re 90 man KO multis are good an pretty soft, specially with fish like http://amatay.blogspot.com/ floating round.

The deal I have in place, which I mentioned in my last post should be materialising in the next couple of weeks. I have signed up to VC poker with a good deal which I got through http://tetleyboy-affiliates.com/ it’s ran by a guy called Nik Spooner who is a cracking guy. It's a unbeatable VIP deal they do for high rake earners, mine is based on me generating 1K a month, which is easily achieveable. He is always happy to answer any questions you have and will happily talk strategy all day on MSN. I recommended you give his site a look if you’re looking for good rake back. They have some really good deals available Planning on meeting up with him in Leos casino in Liverpool next week, so that should be good. I am starting to get more people around me who are involved in and passionate about poker so that can only help my game.

The Plan

I have basically spoken to work who say in the current climate anyone looking to drop to part time hours will be happily converted to part time within a week of asking. Now this means I will be working 9-2 or 10-3. This will be enough for me to cover my mortgage and bills etc but will also allow me to concentrate a lot more on poker, whilst also being fresher. I just cannot motivate myself to play enough after 9 hours on the phone to idiot customers who think BT owe their business a living, with redic sales target (thanks BT). Now when I go part time my targets half and I will probs make up the deficit in bonus. I will be working core selling hours and probly bring in the same figures with half the target.

Soon as the $5k lands in my account, I am going to do it. Then I will spend a week watching a ton of sheets’ videos on cardrunners and re-read colin moshmans book which I have only briefly read. I will be playing the $50 SNG’s on VC which are running really well. They have superturbos, regs, turbos and double ups. I will be playing 6 max trubos/double ups as these will be miles better for the hourly rate. I plan on playing at least 50 a day and while this will be tough it will be certainly achievable if 6 tabling as they only take about 20 mins per game. I have spent hours this week just sat there watching them and the play is questionable, people busting double ups at 20/40 level with AK etc, they just don’t seem to be grasping the basic concept of the games. I am already noting the regs as much as I can and really can’t wait to get going. I plan playing 4 hours a day or more if I have to in order to hit the daily target of 50. Now obvs when am on a heater I will play until I cant play no more. If I can hit a consistent hourly rate of profit I will then make the next stage which will be leaving work etc. I will need a larger sample than normal to make a step that big but I am pretty confident I can do it. The rake back part of this is massive as on the minimum calculations, even if I break even I throughout the games; I will still profit $125 daily through rake back. I am currently a break even player over a large sample on stars so with the extra training and coaching I have planned and putting everything I have learned myself into practice I don’t see why its not achievable. I will blog the results weekly.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

First off I want to get the negatives out the way. I am reallly running worse than I ever have. Now I wouldnt say am any were close to being at the standard I want to be at because I want to be the best lol but I have played enough of this game to know I am good enough to earn money in the long run. I started blaming online poker lol, but obvs this cant be the case, can it?? is thetr something funny about it? strange? personally I think to much money goes through it for it to be rigged so I am not in the 'online is rigged brigade' its just playing with major donks at micro levels and seeing so many hands imo.

So tonight I go down to my local poker league ran by www.pokerresults.co.uk for the start of the new league, £20 FO with an average of 30 runners of 4 different venues Mon-Thu with a biggish prize money final at the end of the league to, its ran well and we have a good crack plus its a change from the online game. Anyway played a couple of small pots in the first half an hour then with 5k stack at 75/150 an utg tight raiser to 450, now his range hear is JJ-AA, AK AQ, so one caller an comes to be on the button with 89cc so with a busting hand, position and pot odds I call knowing if I flop big I am taking the lot , any way flop comes a beautiful Kx6c7c and I am licking me lips, he bets the pot an the second caller reraises effectively putting me all in, now I know am behind at this point, I cant see no fold button on my screen an make the shove with 5 million outs, now I obv brick the lot and his AA takes it, 2nd raiser on the flop folded btw lol with 1.5k left, i mean come one. So point is on the way home I realised its not online pokers fault and I am simply running bad, that flop was live rigged and it fucked me right off lol

Soon as i got home I fired 4 6man turbos on pokerstars, an seriously in 100 hands and about 20 mins of poker watch wtf happens here. Its so funny an i was actually laughin in the end. These hands sum up my first month of this blog, which btw is fucking jinxin me to I reckon lol

AA>88 The early pre flop raiser was effectively all in anyway i flatted trying to induce a shove from behind which works alot in these SNG's - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4501243

however every now an then I do catch a fish, This was beautiful as on the turn when the chips went it, I felt sick as I knew his flush was coming but didnt know it would give me quads tho - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4501243

This hand made me sick in the $22/5k today, this is why I logged off and went playing live, wtf he thought i was UTG raising with this early I will never know. I kinda had a feelin JT after his second turn call an in hindsight I think I should of raised big on the blank turn anyway, but i was trying to get max value but he had postion and his monster double gutter - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4501576

Now i will just leave these, i was gonna post more but I really dont want to be negative. The lower limits on stars is full of people who havent gotta clue which will make it easier in the long run. Now since I started this blog the $20 deposit which peaked at $700 is now sat at $250 lol, Alot of this is tily sesions on cash, which I am not rolled or educated enough to be playing. I have also took some shots at MTT's I am not rolled for an busted the lot except a min cash in $109 FO on stars.

Now on to the positives. I have analysed alot of my play through holdem manager. Now alot of the things I have done have been correct but there are still alot of leaks. Now the biggest stat that stands out for me is AKo is -EV at early and mid levels of these SNG's and that I am busting ealry with premium hands like QQ-AA because you cant raise enough pre to get rid of them an when running bad you know your in trouble holding AA on a table full of donks. Do I fold it early if am running bad/unlucky?? would this be deemd +EV in the long run??? I dont know. Things are going to change over the next couple of months. I have had a real good proposal which involves money for coaching, and playing the higher end of medium stakes SNG's, excersing a strict 100 buy in BRM, whilst not risking a penny of my own money. Now if this happens it could be the start of something good. I have played thousands of SNG's and whilst maybe only breaking even/losing, its not a huge amount and what I have learned in that period is invaluable. So now is time to stop pressuring myself an grinding small stakes sit an go's hours a day after working all day, on a break even scale. Its time to take a lil break read some more books, more analyses of poker tracker, but most importantly get some really good coaching and pay good money for it, lettin some one paper over the cracks that I must have but cant really see. I really do believe I am a few good coaching sessions away from becoming a winning player. I am disciplined and can stick to what I am taught, especially were good money is involved. So when the money comes from the offer, I will be looking for the best coaching deal out there also any advice on were to go would be nice. I will watch some cardrunner vids which again I have never done, but I want real live coaching.

My main problem is I am not really around people passionate enough about the game, but more importantly knowlegable enough with proven reuslts to back their theorys up. I only learned the game 2 years ago from scratch and none of my friends are passionate about it, they see it as fun LOL to that!

I didnt think I would stick to this blog but I enjoy it an it helps gettin shit off your chest to a different an random audience than those normally around you and I intend to stick to it.

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

After some bubbles, min/medium MTT cashes and breaking even/losing on my SNG's I decided I would play some Omaha H/L for a change, its me dads favourite game an he taught me the basic concepts of it plus I have read 'Farha on Omaha' which is quite a good read and as sammy himself said, when it comes to omaha "no one knows what sammy knows".

Now tournament poker is generally the same, in terms of the way you approach it, regardless of the game you're playing but the $5 NL/Omaha H/L [Ante Up] tournament on stars is unique as they come, but its also quite fun and enjoyable, I recommend it to anyone. Basically the Antes go up each level and the blinds stay at 5/5. There is certainly lots of dead money, people doing silly things like raising 3 x blind (5) into pots of 1k+ lol. I was involved in plenty of hands from start to finish being aggressive, hittin flops and gettin decent starting hands. All ins galore to the point were you could wait for your big hand and call, one lad called my AKK2 double suited with 789T, rainbow for a big pot, now were playing H/L here and he plays the dead on medium cards, wp! In the end I had that big of stack I would call off with any 4 against the shorties and win. I ended up coming 2/173 for $138. We were heads up for ages and deep, it was late and I could see it would be a long boring slog, he asked me to chop, I mean we were playing for $50, to which I replied I would flip him every hand for fun til some one won, he kept saying "after chop" lol, in the end we carried one til I flopped trips - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4477844 but so did he and he filled up on the turn. A little disappointed as it would have been nice to win for winnings sake and it could of been an easy fold to his allin on the turn, but I was fuckin knackered an on a lil tilt from...

... I also played the $22 PLO H/L $3k guaranteed which ended up getting 326 runners paying 45 with a prize pool of $6,520 and $1,225 ftw. I ended up busting 15/326 with AA7Kcc against A8Q5 for a 80k top 5 pot approaching the FT, why the fuck he didnt just fold pre flop is beyond me. I didn't like the flop but there was now way I was folding once I had commit ed so much pre. Maybe the wrong move and I would like to know if any has any advice on the way played the hand, which is here - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4477911

SnG's are turning round a little, while playing them 2 tournies. I 4 tabled the $1.75 18 man turbos on stars, done 5 sets of 4 and made a profit lol but never broke into the top 10 of the LB which are basically your best score for each set of 20 you do in a given week, ended up get 395 points, 480-600 seems to be average in all divisions for top ten. I then tried the $3-5 division an broke even an got no were on the leader board still 4 left to play with 177 points, probs need to win all 4 lol . I will have a shot at $5-10 division this week and a couple more at the lower ones. They are fun and give you something to aim for. Plus nice little prizes, especially if you win, but MTT's are were the money are so I will be doing my best to play more of them

I have also lost alot on SNGs in the last 2 weeks and my bank roll was down to $90 at one point, I went on sick tilt played a $27 18 manner and won it for $180, then reverted back to a 50 buy in minimum. It seems I do better at higher buy ins, one things for sure trying to build a bank roll from scratch at micro limits by playing SNG's is proving to be one painful, stressful and variance hit experience, take down that Sunday mill one time pleaseeeee

Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Seriously do not know what the fuck i have to do to win on these SNG's, you just try mixing variance, with donks and pokerstars an watch how quick you lose your money! I am down like 15 buyins since yesterday but just look why, seriously, these will make you laugh if you havin a bad day!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4426425 - watch how bad this play is here, a raise an 4 flat callers ffs, I knew my AQ was clearley the best hand, i never really belive the original riaser lol an unless someone was settin up a squeeze, which I doubt any1 had the brains to do anyway an if they did I werent in the mood to believe them

Now these are only a few, every hand I go with as 50/50 I lose, whether i have the overs or the pair, its just so frustrating. I am losing 70/30''s left right an centre, the few times I go in as a 60/40 or 70/30 dog I seem to win, its fucked up! I do think after tryin to evaluate it all that I am puttin me chips in a little bit to early, now even tho I am ahead maybe i should be folding these hands pre flop in the early stages, but then the blinds go up that quick you just blind out or end up have to push with hands like KT etc, which judging by pokerstars might not be such a bad idea

maybe its just variance an it is a small sample an I should just keep playing but I just feel like I am pissing in the wind and the more I play the more I'll lose. Or you hit your flush and your scared someone gotta higher one, or your start thinkin your sets not good, or lay top pair cos you know hes gotta flush draw, an you know the fuckers gonna hit!

Monday, 29 June 2009

MTTS:Ok so I won a step 4 ticket on stars and decided to play the Sunday warm up. You cant convert the ticket to cash or tourney dollars and I didn’t fancy going beyond step 4 so thought fuck it, warm up it is and decided I would take it down and leave work, yeah obv that didn’t happen.I woke up Sunday went the gym then a little barbecue at me brothers and I was feeling good by the time 5pm came. I was a lil apprehensive about playing as I had been running badddd in SNGs but thought fuck it my luck has to change sometimes so I fired stars up an regd for the warm up and I had built my stack up to 16k an feeling pretty good when this happens. www.pokerhand.org/?4414895 now I think I played the hand well, I made the 3 bet big enough to say something along the lines of, I know your raising light but I aint 3 betting light you cunt, however he found a monster that is A4off and a 4bet/shove. I actually considered folding for like 1 millionth of a second but it weren’t me tourney life so I thought fuck this and snapped lol,. Hard to blame him as I had been 3 betting alot, to the table it must of seemed I was playing loose aggressive and in a way I was, and I was happy as I had been trying to set this hand up, only to get dry bummed when I did o well . I then proceeded to go through the rollercoaster of emotions and ended up 25/620 when the bubble burst and i was feeling real good thinkin just one time maybe?? anyway I knew big flips were gonna be key then I lost this one http://www.pokerhand.org/?4418449 which pissed me off big time, the villain had been raising alot in position but with only 10 bbs why hadnt he open shoved?? 10bb and a min raise is either ultra strong or ultra stupid, anyway I just couldnt accept a strong hand wouldnt just shove here, if he is AA/KK then why play it in a way in which its obvious?? I once read if in doubt shove, plus I had him covered so took the gamble. I couldnt get nothing going then open shoved QQ 12bb UTG and button moon found the pokerstars nutzzz that is AK off and called, heres the exit hand http://www.pokerhand.org/?4418443 Anyway all in all thats 2 warm ups, 2 cashes and good experience, the play is questionable and if i just ran better or stopped going card dead in the end game then who knows. It only cost me $7.50 for a $410 score so cant complain. I am in step 3 again so another sunday major could be on the cards again this sunday. I have had min cahses in the daily 30K lol, 3 dollars for 3 hours work jsut doesnt do it for me, I may play the $11PLO tonight for fun, I will not play a higher buy in than $11 again unless I sat into it or the roll allows, its a shame cos I really enjoy MTTs and on my day I can play well in them

SNG's:In my SNG progress I really dont know whats going on because I still havent got poker tracker up an running and wont do until tomorrow. I should be up, however I have lost a bit of money being an absolute WANKER in cashgames and MTT's. I hate meself for doing it and could easily have had more of a roll after me 1st post. These Stars $6 MTTSNG and STTSNG are just so sick its untrue. I cant wait to really analyze it through poker tracker because some of the shit you see in them is unbelievable an its hard to not tilt, sometimes I even get the 'if you cant beat them join them syndrome' and go in 70/30 dog yet win, after crying over losing me last 10 70/30 faves in a row lol. On the face of it it seems the odds just dont way up. Yes the play is ridiculous, you would think that makes it easier, but if the odds arent adding up then it can make it harder. I havent made close runs on the leaderboards but no top 10 yet. I have $600 so may even try the $10/13 buyins an see what happens

My worst beat,2nd hand, needed the points for the leader borad, in fact this one has just happened in the last ten mins lol this is what your dealing with on pokerstars

KK - flops a set, still no good I did consider JQ but thought if he has the bollocks (which is unlikley) i still have 20% equity, o well - http://www.pokerhand.org/?4418442

denegenarate tales:

100NL pissed all or nothing shot, ended up with nothing obvs

50NL pissed all or nothing, lost

$20 rebuy pissed, rebought 3 times then quit lol i was bladdered, so $80 down, grrrrrrrrr

$44 6max MTT, this one i was sober an really felt I could do something, played it 3 times last year an came 12/256, 11/285 something like that and a min cash, I was doing really well until at 4 handed i had KK>QQ AIPF and the board ran AQJ58, still shouldnt of played it due to roll reasons and my new mission, but I really like the shorthandedness and short fields the tourny offers

Everton

Well pretty quiet down at goodison, we do need to add to the squad but the main thing for me is keeping players this summer. The chelski of the north, shittee are sniffing round Lescott whos statement didnt do much to ease my fears, now the price is £18 mill plus micah richards, if we get that then I cant complain as we paid £4m 2 years ago, lets face it richards was england class 2 years ago til mark hughes took over, and lescott was in the 1st division til moyes took a risk, I think moyes will turn that round, lescott will die off and richards will come back in the england squad if the move goes through, I really rate moyes that highly. As for lescot, go an play for a 2nd rate manager, a club with no history, fans as exciting as me nan (an shes dead). Mark Hughes wont the last the season an the next manager migh not even want you. So if you art going to turn ya back on the manager who has given you premier league football, 2 wembley appearances and european football, fans that our passionate an the best in the business, a club with more history than city can ever buy and the uncertainty of whats going to happen in the future, then we dont want you anyway you mercenary, FUCK OFFThe main one for me is one who not many have yet heard off, but beleive me, you will! Jack Rodwell, people are making comparison to ferdinand when he was 21 and this lad is only just 18. Towering performance beyond is years in the U21's with stuart pearce licking his arse refutely. Now the rumor is sir red nose is sniffing round another of our big stars and lining up a 18 mill bid. I have heard that he wants to stay if moyes play him Centre half. Moyes has been playing him in a 5 man midfield to get him used to the prem an comfortable on the ball but looks like he may be our centreback next year, I for one would have no qualms throwing him in the deep end.

Monday, 15 June 2009

Ok so were do I start? My names Garry and I have been playing poker from scratch for just over a year and like many when I first started I was awful at the game however my game is progressing nicely. Poker is one of my 3 loves in life, the other 2 being my beautiful gf Hannah and EvertonFC.

My main in problem in poker has always been my bankroll/bankroll management, or should I say the lack of both. I would literally deposit $100 each month until it was gone. I have had some semi decent results, i have finaled the 5k $22 on stars twice and had a decent results in other tournies such as th warm up etc

This year I am really going to start having a real go at the game. I have built a $20 deposit on stars up to $360 were I will be playing exclusively the $6 18 manners and $5 27 manners giving me 50 buy ins at each level. I will then move up the stakes when and only when I have 50 buy ins, 50 buy ins should be a sufficient roll as the players are pretty poor. I probsshouldn't be playing on stars as the rakeback system doesn't exist an the FPP system will only benefit you more as you move up the stakes.

Stars do however run a battle of the planets promotion and I think by disciplining myself i can take advantage of them. I have had 12th and 14th place finishes in them, however the top 10 is were you want to be. Its a good payout for 1st plus you get a freeroll 50k shout out if your in the top ten

So why am I blogging when only playing small stakes?? Well basically the blog is to discipline myself, learn of others and for fun. It will be interesting to see if I can stick to it and I look forward to recording my results

I will be getting poker tracker or hold em manager at the end of the month but dont know whats best so any advice would be welcome??? I will start posting graphs and charts recording my rersults weekly along with my worst bad beats of the week :-) loool!!! I will be looking at my results from this moment on not previous to this as obvs my results from when I 1st started are pathetic

screen names:

stars - badcallthattilt - givemerocketscake - CryMeARiver

I only have any sort of sample on stars and even thats not high enough, I will be playing the others more regulary when my roll increases.

I can get you a 33% rakeback, $600 deposit sign up bonus and a weekly $100 freeroll on cake if your interested just let me know

My Poker Story

My Name is Garry. I got into playin poker through my dad who loves the game and specialises in PLO. I would spend hours playing it for fun with no real idea what I was doing. I then started reading blogs an realised the potential of poker an what it could do for my dream of a better life.
It was after a trip to vegas I decided I had to find a way to take poker more serious which is when I put all my efforts into getting involved with Nick Rainey at www.rainmanpoker.net. I managed to get on his course after several emails and basically begging lol.
I have left worked to play poker full time an the rest is remains to be seen